New survey results show that American Jews not only dislike the evangelical Christian right, but also feel significantly more favorably toward Mormons than evangelicals.

New survey information shows that the feelings of Jewish-Americans toward Mormons are more than twice as favorable as what Jews feel for evangelical Christians.

Released earlier this month, the2012 Jewish Values Survey was conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. Among several questions, Jewish respondents were asked to rate their feelings toward other religious groups on a 100-point scale — with 1 being least favorable and 100 most favorable.

The survey reported, "American Jews, on average, rated (Mormons) at 47. By contrast, when asked to rate the Christian right, American Jews report an average of 20.9, a score indicating that American Jews hold considerably more unfavorable feelings toward members of the Christian right, significantly more so than toward Mormons."

"Social views of Christian conservatives have been drawing attention in recent months as an increasingly significant part of the Republican presidential primary discourse," Nathan Guttman wrote for the Forward. "Attempts by GOP candidates to prove their conservative credentials in order to win over the Christian right have had, experts believe, an adverse effect on the Jewish community, turning it away from the Republican Party."

However, in a Daily Beast column penned on April 6, Jewish-American conservative radio host Michael Medved employed a different tack for explaining the disparity in Jewish favorability toward Mormons and evangelicals. Instead of focusing on why Jews distrust evangelicals, Medved built the bulk of his op-ed piece on the assertion that "Jews maintain a distinctly — and surprisingly — favorable view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

"We suspect that Jews' warmth toward Mormons stems from solidarity with another group that is small and subject to intolerance," Putnam and Campbell wrote. "Jews and Mormons are the two American groups most likely to report that other people disparage their religious beliefs. Roughly 15 percent of both Jews and Mormons say that they hear derogatory comments 'often.'

"The warmth of Jews toward Mormons reminds us that, even at a time when religion and politics are increasingly intertwined, religious comity can transcend partisan differences."

The Jewish and Mormon faiths are similar in size. Both number between 6 and 7 million in the United States and 13-15 million worldwide.

Popular Comments

I am a member of the LDS church and always have had particularly strong feelings
of love, brotherhood, respect, and admiration for those of the Jewish faith.
Perhaps I am not the only one and perhaps those feeling are, in some form,
mutual.

10:07 a.m. April 18, 2012

Top comment

RedShirt

USS Enterprise, UT

To "A Scientist" the LDS church isn't concerned with their
popularity. The study was done by "The Public Religion Research
Institute". Maybe you should ask them why they are concered with LDS
popularity.

11:33 a.m. April 18, 2012

Top comment

A voice of Reason

Salt Lake City, UT

Most Jews I have known have expressed very deeply a desire for religious
tolerance, freedom of religion, and a great deal who want "a better
tomorrow"- or the attitude of improving on what we do good instead of the
destructive alternative.
More..